The invention relates to game rackets of the type having a grip, a handle shaft and a head with two contact surfaces, such as for instance a tennis racket, a squash racket, a badminton racket or a racket ball racket.
Game rackets are used in a variety of sports, including tennis, badminton, squash, racket ball and ping-pong. The contact surfaces of a conventional true racket, as distinguished from the solid surfaces of a paddle, are formed by a network of flexible string under high peripheral tension.
In games such as tennis--where the ball employed is of considerable mass, and the velocities achieved, especially in tournament play, are also very great--the ball is capable of exerting a significant torsional force on the player's wrist, if it is not hit dead center on the racket's face. The area which creates a minimal amount of torque and thus allows the player to aim the ball with greater precision and force is located in the central portion of the racket's face and is referred to as the "sweet spot." Much of the prior art relating to improved racket design attempts in various ways to enlarge the effective sweet spot area. This has led recently to the introduction of a variety of "oversized" racket designs into tournament play.
Some prior art inventions, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,147,348 (Lee), have provided means for increasing the player's ability to counteract the torsional forces--in this case by bringing the contact surfaces downward such that they are essentially an extension of the forearm itself. However, no arrangement can completely do away with the torsional forces--they are a physical fact of nature. A combination of such design elements as are found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,147,348 (Lee), above, and the present invention may represent an optimal solution.